The exemplary embodiment relates to the image processing arts. It finds particular application in connection with a workflow system for processing multi-page documents ready for printing which retains the formatting instructions associated with individual pages during the preparation of a print-ready file.
A print job typically includes one or more electronically-stored files and the page attributes for those files. Conventionally, a job ticket is used to direct an output device to render the document. For example, the job ticket is used to provide instructions for an imaging system, such as a printer or copier, for rendering the print job in a designated format, such as, for example, letter size or A4, as well as specifying other page attributes, such as simplex (single-sided) or duplex (double-sided) printing, and so forth. Generally, software installed on the user's computer that displays a graphical user interface (GUI) is used to select page attributes for a print job. Using a mouse, keyboard, etc., the user selects from a menu of options displayed in the GUI the appropriate page attributes or adopts a default set. The user's computer, under control of the installed software, then creates an electronically-stored job ticket based on the information entered by the user. The job ticket, along with the files to be rendered, are forwarded to the imaging device, which then creates a physical document as specified in the job ticket attached to the electronic document.
The Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) is widely used interchange format for electronic documents in that it is largely platform independent. The PDF format is based on PostScript and can serve as a page description language, describing the graphical appearance of pages with respect to an imaging model. The application generates a device independent description in page description language which can be interpreted by a program controlling a specific output device, which renders the image on the device. A job ticket may be embedded in a PDF file, for example, using Adobe's Portable Job Ticket Format, or appended to it.
A document may include pages of different sizes. When such a document is converted to PDF and processed in a PDF workflow system, the page size information and other formatting information received with the original document is lost as the print software applies its own job ticket. In order to get completely accurate output, the user must set up the print job ticket for the job to reflect the page sizes of the original document, taking into account any changes required if the workflow system has performed any impositions, e.g., signaturizations of the document. This detracts from the usefulness of an automated workflow system, as the print job ticket may have to be set up separately for each document. Setting the various parameters for each job ticket is often a time-consuming task.